Top 5 Bible Adaptation News Stories of 2024
Updated: 7 hours ago
2024 was another big year for Bible adaptation. As The Chosen continues to gain momentum, we are finally beginning to see the giant wave of Bible movies and shows that I have been predicting for a few years. Join me as I review the top developments of 2024 and the implications they have for the new year.
5) The Chosen LLC. and Angel Studios Split
Fall 2023, the creators of The Chosen announced that Season 4 would be released exclusively in theaters throughout the month of February before then being released through The Chosen App in March and April. But as the theatrical release of The Chosen came and went and a streaming release schedule was not announced, fans began to get nervous. Then came a big announcement from Dallas Jenkins, in which fans learned that the release of Season 4 was going to be delayed due to (at that point) undisclosed legal issues. This set off a wave of speculation and anxiety among fans of The Chosen. Finally, the cause of the legal issues came to light: The Chosen LLC. was parting ways with its original distributor, Angel Studios.
Although this news came as a shock to many fans, there had been signs of a potential divide between Angel Studios and The Chosen. Leading up to the release of Season 3, the creators of the show unveiled the newly-formed Come and See Foundation, a separate organization designed to help produce and distribute the show. The Chosen team also introduced its own app, a home for the show independent of the Angel Studios App. Then in Spring 2023 news outlets announced a new global distribution agreement between The Chosen LLC. and Lionsgate.
The legal issues between The Chosen LLC. and Angel Studios took months to resolve and ultimately resulted in a private arbitrator dissolving the relationship between the two organizations. The creators of The Chosen argued that Angel Studios breached its contract with The Chosen LLC. on multiple occasions, threatening the viability of the company and the show. The owners of Angel disputed this account and vowed to appeal the decision.
The split between The Chosen LLC. and Angel Studios has already had numerous repercussions on Bible adaptation. On the one hand, the profit-sharing agreement between Angel and The Chosen team appears to have been quite onerous, preventing the show from achieving financial sustainability. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that, not long after The Chosen was unhitched from its obligations to Angel, the creators of the show finally had the financial confidence to formally announce several new spinoffs (more on that below).
On the other hand, the split has shifted the relationship between Angel Studios and The Chosen from one of cooperation to one of competition. Piggybacking on the success of The Chosen, Angel experienced major growth over the past few years – and many of its smaller projects benefitted from their association with (and sometimes even advertising on) The Chosen. But now, in the place of this synergy, we are already seeing signs of competition. In November, The Chosen released an intriguing teaser trailer for the Holy Week-focused Season 5 and announced a theatrical release of the new episodes in the weeks leading up to Easter 2025. Later that day, Angel Studios released its own trailer for The King of Kings, an animated Jesus film, and announced that it would be released in roughly the same theatrical window.
While there will certainly be diehard fans who make it to both releases, fans who don’t have the time and money to attend both will be forced to make a choice between The Chosen Season 5 and The King of Kings. From my perspective, this move is a significant strategic error for Angel, which has a narrower fanbase and has more riding on its theatrical release. But the competition will almost certainly do some damage to The Chosen Season 5 at the box office. Casual viewers who want an easier, cheaper theatrical experience will opt for The King of Kings and wait for Season 5 to release on streaming. Regardless of which property wins at the box office this April, what seems clear is that both will lose out on potential audience members that they could have had if Angel Studios and The Chosen team were working together instead of competing.
4) Hollywood Renews Interest in Bible Adaptation
Since The Chosen began receiving significant attention in the mainstream media for its notable success, I’ve been predicting a wave of Bible adaptations, not only from independent Christian teams but also from Hollywood and other mainstream media companies. And this my prediction finally began to materialize. Earlier in December, Netflix released Mary, the first post-The Chosen Bible film from a major mainstream media company. Although Mary was far from immaculate, it was beautifully shot and was not actively seeking to undermine the biblical account in the same way that Noah or Exodus: Gods and Kings did.
And Mary isn’t the last big Hollywood Bible film on the horizon. Although Angel Studios is the distributor for The King of Kings, it draws on an impressive list of A-List Hollywood actors like Oscar Isaac, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamil, Kenneth Branagh, Forest Whitaker, and Pierce Brosnan. Nicolas Cage was also recently attached to a horror film, The Carpenter’s Son, in which follows Joseph during Jesus’ youth. And The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection, directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel, finished filming in 2024 and is set to release in April 2025. While not all of these films will be of equal quality or fidelity, I am hopeful that Hollywood’s approach to Bible adaptation will generally trend in a positive direction as creators and producers learn from the success of The Chosen.
3) The Chosen Season 4 Inspires Acclaim, Controversy
The Chosen Season 4 was released in February and received extraordinarily positive responses – for the most part. In my own reviews of Season 4, I note the increased production value, the sophisticated, bold storytelling, and the more unified overarching narrative that holds the season together. I also drew attention to the excellent performances by the cast and the relevance and complexity of the themes explored throughout the season.
But not everyone was pleased with Season 4. SPOILER WARNING - the death of Ramah in Episode 3 generated one of the most heated debates that the show has ever faced. Does Jesus’ decision to not heal Ramah contradict passages in Scripture that say Jesus healed “all” who came to him (e.g. Matthew 8:16) and that not one of his disciples (except Judas) was lost (John 17:11-12)? Does the scene undermine Jesus’ divinity or character? Is it an example of a female character getting “fridged”? Unlike some of the trumped up controversies of past seasons, I could sympathize with many of these concerns. Nevertheless, I ultimately applauded the creators for making a bold choice and pointed to Ramah’s death as a demonstration of how speculative adaptation can generate important theological discussions.
2) New Genres of Bible Adaptation Emerge
The Bible may be one big story, but it is made up of a diverse collection of writings with a variety of styles and genres. In the wake of the success of The Chosen, part of me was afraid that we would get a bunch of copycats, mimicking not just the biblical source material but also the specific style and tone of The Chosen. As much as I love The Chosen, I want to see other approaches to Bible adaptation, representing the diversity of Scripture – and of modern storytelling. And 2024 has boded well for that desire.
Going into 2024, Angel Studios already had a diverse array of Bible-related content in development. Young David, the prequel to the upcoming animated David film, delivers Bible-era adventures for children. So will The King of Kings, an animated film that explores the Gospels through the eyes of Charles Dickens. Testament, the upcoming alternate-history version of the Book of Acts that takes place in a modern setting, looks like it will appeal to fans of action-thrillers and dystopian stories. Meanwhile, Gabriel and the Guardians is set to explore biblical stories through the unique medium of anime.
But Angel Studios and The Chosen LLC. aren’t the only big players in Bible adaptation. Earlier this year, I was pleasantly surprised by the Pilot for the genuinely funny Bible mockumentary, The Promised Land, which follows the family of Moses on the journey out of Egypt. After the success of the Pilot, The Promised Land received funding for its first full season, which we can hopefully expect next summer. As director Mitch Hudson pointed out to me, comedy is a useful medium for exploring the human condition, so I’m excited to see where the new series goes. But if you’re looking for a more serious take on Bible stories, you won’t have to wait long. Based on the recently released stills, The Wonder Project’s upcoming House of David series will have a tone more in line with fantasy epics like The Lord of the Rings or even The Game of Thrones (if it didn’t have so much coarse language and nudity). UPDATE: The Wonder Project just announced that the first three episodes of House of David will premiere February 27, 2025.
The growing diversity of biblical adaptation is a really good sign. Instead of competing for the same share of the market, a diverse range of Bible films and shows will serve a broader swath of the public and also meet the diverse emotional needs of fans. Some viewers just aren’t going to watch a show as earnest and grounded as The Chosen – but they will watch a lighthearted comedy or a larger-than-life epic. And even diehard fans of The Chosen can use a little variety from time to time.
1) The Chosen Cinematic Universe is Unveiled
Whenever I hear about a new team or company that is developing a Bible adaptation, there is a part of me that gets excited – and a part of me that is skeptical. For every moderately successful Bible adaptation, it seems like there are four or five abysmal failures. Adaptation is a juggling act – trying to honor the original text while telling a good story, crafting realistic characters, achieving high production value, and maintaining the proper tone is extremely hard and not every creator is cut out for the job. That’s what makes the expansion of The Chosen into a full-fledged franchise with multiple spin-offs so exciting. If anyone can claim to have cracked the Bible adaptation code, it’s Dallas Jenkins and his team. And while the exact same team won’t be in charge of every single spin-off in The Chosen Cinematic Universe, I have confidence that the level of institutional knowledge/wisdom and quality control will allow the franchise to produce more consistent quality than the general herd.
While rumors of The Chosen Cinematic Universe have been percolating since 2023, until this past September it was unclear how many spin-offs would be involved and which biblical stories they would focus on. I was expecting The Chosen team to be cautious at first – a couple small projects just to test the waters. So when ChosenCon came around and Dallas announced four new Bible series (Joseph, The Book of Moses, The Way of The Chosen, and The Chosen Adventures) plus a reality TV show, I was blown away. As if that wasn’t enough, rumors soon began to circulate about a Noah series and a standalone Ruth movie. While some of these projects may not materialize for years, The Chosen team is making its ambitions clear. They don’t intend for The Chosen to be a one-off success. Dallas and co. have envisioned something far more expansive – a franchise that covers all kinds of biblical stories and gives them the kind of in-depth treatment they deserve. As a fan of Bible adaptations, it’s hard to think of news that could be any more exciting than that.
Top Story of 2025 (?): Jesus Takes Over Theaters in April
If you were paying close attention to the stories above, you might have noticed that there are three major Bible adaptations that are set to be in theaters this coming April: The Chosen Season 5, The King of Kings, and The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection Part 1. As we go into April, I’ll be interested to see the benefits and tradeoffs of having so much Bible content in theaters at the same time. On the one hand, it means the Gospel will receive a lot of public exposure in the days leading up to Easter. Perhaps even a few secular theater-goers will find themselves tempted to see what all the buzz is about. And among Christians who have a hard time choosing it’s possible we could see something akin to the Barbenheimer back-to-back viewing experience. But, as I’ve pointed out above, many fans will be forced to choose just one Bible viewing experience due to their limited time and resources. That makes me think we might not see any of these individual properties achieve quite the level of box office success that they might have had during a less crowded season. Regardless, I’m sure God will be at work in theaters this April and I’m excited to see what happens.
Which of these stories do you think is the most significant? Was there an important development in the world of Bible adaptation that I missed? Let me know in the comments below!
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